latter end of the Conqueror's time, and about 1184, gave it to the monks of Christ church in Canterbury; and in King Stephen's time they exchanged it with Henry his son, for the advowson and manor of Depham; and accordingly it was held of the barony of Rhye, as of the manor of Hingham; it after came to Robert Fitz-Roger, and then to the St. Omers, who held it of him; Will. de Sancto Audomaro, Omero, or St. Omer, was the first lord of that name, and lived in the time of Henry III. and was succeeded by Thomas his son, who married Petronilla, daughter and coheir of Tho. Malmains, widow of Ralf de Tony; and in 1267, he held the hundred of Grimeshoe and Saham manor, during her life; in 1275 he was justice itinerant in Cambridgeshire, and had a charter of free-warren and a fair here, confirmed, which was first granted to William his father, with freewarren and a fair at Brundale, by King Henry III. in the 38th year of his reign, 1253. In 1285, upon the quo-warranto brought for every manor in the county, to set forth and prove their several liberties, this Thomas claimed view of frankpledge, assize of bread and ale, and all things belonging to a lete, and had it allowed; he also claimed liberty of infangenthef, and accordingly erected a gallows here: and this year, one Walter Godwyne of Carleton, taken in this manor, and convicted of felony by Nic. de Monuer of Carleton, in this court sufficiently proved, was condemned and hanged; but it appearing that this Thomas de St. Omer was the first that erected a gallows here, and that without the King's grant, or the manor having the liberty; it was ordered that he should be disseized of such liberty, and the gallows pulled down. This Thomas, at his death, settled sufficient revenues out of his lands here, on the pittancer of Norwich cathedral, to keep his anniversary for ever, and to treat the convent on that day. He left two daughters his heiresses; Elizabeth, married Thomas Waryn, and they levied a fine, and thereby released all right in the manors of Mulbarton, Keteringham, and Brundale, in Norfolk, to Sir Will. de Hoo, Knt. and Alice his wife, half sister to the said Elizabeth; but the advowson of the town continued in Sir William de St. Omer, Knt. till his death, and after in Elizabeth his relict, till her death, and then the whole centered in the Hoo family, and Sir William de Hoo first presented here in 1367. He it was that built the present church and tower, in the chancel of which he and his lady were interred; he adorned the windows with the portraits of himself and lady, and her family and their arms; and till lately, one of the north windows had in it, the pictures of Sir Thomas de St. Omer on his knees in armour,
